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Southern Foodways Alliance Cookbook: A Call For Recipes

Posted by Melissa Hall, April 4, 2008 at 3:15 PM

Southern Foodways appears on Fridays as part of our collaboration with the Southern Foodways Alliance, an organization based in Oxford, Mississippi, that "documents and celebrates the diverse food cultures of the American South." Dig in!

At long last, the SFA is producing a cookbook. We've thought about it. Talked about it. And, we've heard you ask the question: "Why don't you guys do this?" We listened and it's happening.

Our cookbook team has been working since last fall to figure out how the thing will look (a fun, funky, respectful riff on community cookbooks), what recipes we'll include (nothing from previously published sources or generic web sites—only the tried and true, much loved and well-used, creased and grease stained), and how we'll acknowledge contributors (we're going old school; we mean really old school—Mrs. Emily Smith of Wilmore, Kentucky—you get the picture).

We think our ducks are in a row and the recipe collection and testing process has begun in earnest. Here's where you come in: we're still on the hunt for a recipes in a few discreet categories. If you've got one, send it to us at mgbhall@olemiss.edu. And, we don't just want the recipe; we want to know how long you've used it, how long the person before you used it, and so on. One more thing, we can't promise we'll include it in the final volume. But, if we do, we'll attribute it properly!

We still need recipes for frog legs, turtle/cooter, field peas, fried apples, poke, ambrosia, curried fruit, pawpaws, mayhaw jelly, simple dirty rice, homemade root beer, cafe brulot, lemonade, Creole Cream Cheese, divinity, mints, strawberry shortcake, and cheese straws. Please don't send us recipes for other dishes. If it's not on this list, we've got it covered!

About the author: Melissa Booth Hall, a Southern Foodways Alliance staff member, grew up in Middlesboro, Kentucky, just a few hundred yards from the Cumberland Gap. Her culinary education began at age four, when she was allowed to stand on a chair in front of a gas stove and make fried pies. She has Centre College and Chase College of Law to thank for her everything-else education. A lawyer by training, she recently figured out a way to turn her passion for food into a paying job.

1 Comment | Tags: cookbooks, SFA column, Southern Foodways Alliance